LEADING figures from both sides of the independence debate will set out their aims for local government after the referendum.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Labour MP Alistair Darling will address council figures at a conference in St Andrews today.

The politicians, representing the pro-independence Yes Scotland and pro-Union Better Together campaigns, are taking part in the two-day Convention of Scottish Local Authorities event on the "place of local government in a post-2014 Scotland".

Ms Sturgeon is expected to underline the "respect" she says central government has for councils.

"Since coming to office in 2007, this Government has sought to respect Scotland's proud tradition of local government by working together on the basis of parity of esteem," she said before the conference.

"And we have achieved much together in difficult times. I believe that where we have worked together, we have worked well."

She will highlight multimillion-pound funding packages to help build "social" homes, create a welfare fund and cover a cut to council tax benefit.

Promoting independence, she said: "Part of the job of councils is to empty the bins. But it is not the job of local government to clear up after the rubbish policies generated by a remote Westminster Government that appears clueless about the damage to families and society being wreaked by its ideology-driven social policies.

"There is a better way and a better job to be done."

Mr Darling, Better Together leader and a former UK Chancellor, is expected to put pressure on the Scottish Government to set out the "facts" of independence and the need for trust in leaders.

This week his campaign published a leaked one-year-old Scottish cabinet document in which ministers were warned of "cost pressures" on public spending.

It also raised concerns about the volatility of oil revenue, prompting unionists to complain that SNP ministers say one thing privately and another publicly.

The paper also predicted public finances will recover and rise from 2017-18 onwards.

Speaking before the event, Mr Darling highlighted what he sees as a bleak future under independence.

"It is a matter of real concern that this week, for the second time in six months, the Scottish Government has been found out saying one thing to the public and thinking quite another in private," he said.

"First it was the legal opinion on the European Union which didn't exist. Now we find that the Scottish Government, in private, knows that an independent Scotland would face a dismal landscape.

"Nothing is more likely to stoke a sense of cynicism than the public feeling that the true facts are being kept from them. I say it again: people need to know the facts before they make the biggest decision in their lives.

"The Scottish Government says that it will publish a White Paper in November that will set out all of its plans on independence. On the evidence we have seen in the last six months, it is likely to raise more questions than answers."